1.1: The Greek Alphabet
Module 1
© 2021 Philip S. Peek, CC BY 4.0 https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0264.01
The Alphabet
About 300,000 years ago homo sapiens regularly used fire—one of our greatest technologies, enabling us to create many more technologies dependent upon it. The agricultural revolution dates to about 12,000 years ago. Before this revolution, we hunted and gathered in small bands requiring vast territories to sustain us. Farming enabled our species to feed many more mouths per acre and for ever-increasing numbers of us to settle in small areas. It also enabled the first empires, which date to about 4000 years ago. The administration of a large state required written records, and so in this period we see the rise of various writing systems, none of which were alphabetic, instead relying on ideograms and syllabaries. Today there are dozens of alphabets with no set characteristics. The Khmer alphabet, which represents Cambodian, has 74 characters. The writing systems of most languages, such as English, are based on the Latin alphabet, which was derived from the Greek, and have 24–26 characters. The alphabet made possible a vast number of additional technologies dependent upon writing.
The origin of the Greek alphabet dates to about 800 BCE, though there is disagreement on exactly when it was invented. When the Greeks adapted the Phoenician syllabary, which represented consonants only, they introduced a refinement, taking the symbols for glottal stops, which do not appear in Greek, and using them instead to represent vowels. The new alphabet gave the Greeks the ability to represent in their entirety each sound that made up a word. Exactly how, when, and why the adaptions occurred is uncertain and the story of how it happened is fascinating and not without its oddities. Some of the consonantal adaptions of the Phoenician syllabary to the Greek alphabet represent a correspondence between sounds, just as the sound of the English consonant l is similar to the sound of the Greek consonant λ . One oddity is that the sounds of the Greek letters chi χ and phi φ were not represented at all, though they easily could have been, and were added to the alphabet much later. Oddities aside, the most astounding feature of the new invention was the adding of vowels to the syllabary. It is one that in retrospect seems obvious. It was not. The Greek inventors took a syllabary of a Semitic language, outside the Indo-European family tree to which Greek belongs, and adapted it, creating something novel. The innovation was discontinuous and revolutionary. Due to the addition of vowels, the Greek alphabet is called the first true one. 1
Throughout Greece and its many independent city-states, there were over twenty different dialects in use and a number of variations in the alphabet. Some Greek letters differed from one district to the next and a few disappeared, notably digamma ϝ , a w-sound, koppa Ϙ , a q-sound, and san Ϻ , or sampi ϡ , whose sound is unclear. In about 400 BCE Athens officially adopted the 24-letter Ionian alphabet, which is the one presented in this book. The ancient Greeks wrote in all capitals. We owe the lower-case letters to a later time of Byzantine scribes and the ingenious printers of the Renaissance. Look over this alphabet and notice that you are familiar with many of the letters and the sounds they make. Many of the English words have been chosen to present as accurately as possible the rendering of the Greek sound. For example s p ot for π is pronounced with no aspiration accompanying the p-sound.
Alphabet Chart
Sound equivalents are bolded.
|
Letter |
Name |
ὄνομα |
Pronunciation |
Transliteration |
|
Α α |
alpha |
ἄλφα |
long ᾱ : f a ther short α : a bout |
a |
|
Β β |
beta |
βῆτα |
b it |
b |
|
Γ γ |
gamma |
γάμμα |
g o |
g |
|
Δ δ |
delta |
δέλτα |
d ot |
d |
|
Ε ε |
epsilon |
ἒ ψιλόν |
always short: b e t |
e |
|
Ζ ζ |
zeta |
ζῆτα |
wi sd om |
z |
|
Η η |
eta |
ἦτα |
always long: a te |
e |
|
Θ θ |
theta |
θῆτα |
th eater |
th |
|
Ι ι |
iota |
ἰῶτα |
long ῑ : m ee t short ι : b i n |
i |
|
Κ κ |
kappa |
κάππα |
s k in |
k, c |
|
Λ λ |
lambda |
λάμβδα |
l it |
l |
|
Μ μ |
mu |
μῦ |
m eet |
m |
|
Ν ν |
nu |
νῦ |
n eat |
n |
|
Ξ ξ |
xi |
ξῖ |
bo x |
x |
|
Ο ο |
omicron |
ὂ μικρόν |
always short: th ou ght |
o |
|
Π π |
pi |
πῖ |
s p ot |
p |
|
Ρ ρ |
rho |
ῥῶ |
rr at (slight roll) |
r, rh |
|
Σ σ ς |
sigma |
σίγμα |
s et ( ς replaces σ at the ends of words) |
s |
|
Τ τ |
tau |
ταῦ |
s t ing |
t |
|
Υ υ |
upsilon |
ὖ ψιλόν |
long ῡ : m u se short υ : p u t |
u, y |
|
Φ φ |
phi |
φῖ |
f it |
ph |
|
Χ χ |
chi |
χῖ |
lun kh ead |
kh, ch |
|
Ψ ψ |
psi |
ψῖ |
u ps et |
ps |
|
Ω ω |
omega |
ὢ μέγα |
always long: t o tal |
o |
Pronunciation
The equivalents given above represent a close approximation of the sounds each letter made, though some sounds have been chosen because native speakers of English find them easier to pronounce. Except in these few cases, this text uses the same pronunciation as does Mastronarde in his text and on his website,
AtticGreek.org Pronunciation Guide. 2
For the differences between this text and the website, see the Introduction, Pronunciation.
A tenet of this book is embracing change, difference, and diversity. Since no one knows exactly how ancient Greek was pronounced, below are a few alternative pronunciations. Should you wish to adopt them, note the following differences, which follow the pronunciation system used by JACT in their Reading Greek series.
Η η : h ai r
Θ θ : t oy (note the exhalation of breath when pronouncing the t ).
Ο ο : p o t
Υ υ : French l u ne or German M ü ller
Φ φ : p ool (note the exhalation of breath when pronouncing the p ).
Ω ω : s aw
Memorize the Names of the Alphabet
In this module your goal is to memorize the alphabet and know it as well as you know the English alphabet. As a first step, memorize the names of the letters by singing or chanting them as you did when you first learned the English alphabet. Chunking the names into groups of four may make the task more manageable.
|
• |
alpha, beta, gamma, delta |
ἄλφα , βῆτα , γά μμα , δέλτα |
|
• |
epsilon, zeta, eta, theta |
ἒ ψιλόν , ζῆτα , ἦτα , θῆτα |
|
• |
iota, kappa, lambda, mu |
ἰῶτα , κάππα , λάμβδα , μῦ |
|
• |
nu, xi, omicron, pi |
νῦ , ξῖ , ὂ μικρόν , πῖ |
|
• |
rho, sigma, tau, upsilon |
ῥῶ , σί γμα , ταῦ , ὖ ψιλόν |
|
• |
phi, chi, psi, omega |
φῖ , χῖ , ψῖ , ὦ μέγα |
Long and Short Vowel Sounds
Greek vowels have length or quantity ; their quantity is either long or short. Long vowels take approximately twice as long to pronounce. Say out loud the English word drama . Note the difference in the amount of time you take to pronounce the first syllable dra and the second syllable ma . The a of the first syllable takes longer to pronounce, just as in Greek the long alpha takes longer to pronounce than does the short alpha.
Greek has five long vowels and five short vowels. Eta and o-mega ( big o ) are always long. Epsilon and o-micron ( little o ) are always short. Alpha, iota, and upsilon can be long or short. A long mark or macron ( μακρόν ) is placed above these vowels when they are long, as in ᾱ . Short vowels and vowels that are always long ( η , ω ) are not marked. When you read out loud, pay attention to the vowel sounds and their quantity. Hearing quantity is especially important when attempting to feel the rhythm of a line of poetry or of a prose sentence.
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1. Note that in authentic texts macrons are not used. In this textbook macrons are used in the paradigms. Otherwise they are typically omitted.
Memorize the Long and Short Vowel Sounds
Memorize the alphabet and the sounds the letters make.
- Write out each vowel from memory.
- As you write out each vowel, pronounce the sound it makes out loud.
- Pronounce the sound of each vowel out loud as you write it in your mind or in the sky.
- When you pronounce each sound, picture the corresponding letter.
- Reproduce from memory the above chart.
Diphthongs
Some pairs of vowels, called diphthongs, are pronounced together, producing a combined sound of two vowels in a single syllable. The English words l ou d , l oi n , and l ai r all have diphthongs that produce a combination of two differing vowel sounds. Greek diphthongs function similarly. The second letter of a diphthong is always iota, ι , or upsilon, υ . For meter and accentuation, diphthongs are considered long with one exception. The diphthongs αι and οι , when final or the last two letters of a word, are short except in the optative, a mood learned in Part II of the 21 st -Century series. Note that the breathing and accent, explained below, are placed over the second vowel of the diphthong: α ἰ θήρ , η ὗ ρον .
Pronunciation of Diphthongs
Except for pronouncing the diphthong υι like the wi sound of wi t, instead of combining the rounded vowel ÿ with semivocalic i as Mastronarde recommends, this text uses the same pronunciation for diphthongs as does Mastronarde.
|
Diphthong |
Pronunciation |
Transliteration |
|
αι |
f i ne |
ai, ae, e |
|
ει |
ei ght |
ei, e, i |
|
οι |
b oy |
oi, oe, e, i |
|
υι |
wi t |
ui |
|
αυ |
sc ow l |
au |
|
ευ |
( ε + υ : f ew ; f eu d) |
eu |
|
ηυ |
( η + υ : h ey + y ou ) |
eu |
|
ου |
b oo t |
ou, u |
- All diphthongs are long with these exceptions: - αι and - οι , when they are the last two letters of a word (final - αι and - οι ), are short for purposes of accentuation except in the optative, a mood learned in Part II of the 21st-Century series. As you work through the text, the short quantity of final - αι and – οι will make sense. Note that ει and η are pronounced alike, as are ου and ῡ .
Follow this link to listen to a chanting and a singing of the alphabet by me and by Dr. E. Del Chrol of Marshall University, followed by me pronouncing the long and short vowels and diphthongs:
Memorize the Sounds of the Diphthongs
Memorize the diphthongs and their sounds so that you know them by heart.
- Write out each diphthong from memory.
- As you write out each diphthong, pronounce out loud the sound it makes.
- Pronounce the sound of each diphthong out loud as you write it in your mind or in the sky.
- When you pronounce each sound, picture the corresponding diphthong.
- Reproduce from memory the above chart.
Rough and Smooth Breathings
Greek also has an h-sound, which occurs only at the beginning of certain words. This sound is not indicated by a separate letter but by the symbol ( ῾ ) called a rough breathing. Say out loud the English word, hi . Notice the sharp exhalation of breath. The technical word for this exhalation is aspiration. Say the word pea out loud while holding your hand in front of your mouth. Note that when you make the sound of the letter p at the start of words, you expel air. Now say the word hope and note that you do not expel air. The p of pea is aspirated and the p of hope is unaspirated. In Greek the h sound appears only at the beginning of certain words.
|
ἑ ξάγωνον |
hexagon |
|
῾Ε λένη |
Helen |
Note that the rough breathing is placed above lower-case letters and before upper-case ones.
Words beginning with a vowel or diphthong, which do not have the h-sound, have a smooth breathing ( ᾿ ) indicating the absence of the h-sound.
|
ὀ λιγαρχία |
oligarchy |
|
᾿Η λέκτρα |
Electra |
Contrast the placement of the breathing over the lower- and upper-case vowels with its placement over the second vowel of a diphthong:
|
εἰ ρωνεία |
irony |
|
εἵ λως |
helot |
All words beginning with an upsilon have a rough breathing.
|
ὑ πόθεσις |
hypothesis |
Likewise, all words beginning with rho have a rough breathing. Say the English word rooster and note that when you pronounce the letter r you expel breath. Now say the word bird and note that you do not expel any breath when you pronounce the r . Initial rho is pronounced like the r in rooster. Note that the rough breathing is captured in the English spelling of rh etoric and rh ythm.
|
ῥ ητορική |
rhetoric |
|
ῥ υθμός |
rhythm |
Memorize the Letters of the Alphabet
Memorize the letters themselves. For each letter, memorize the upper- and lower-case symbol. To assist you in memorizing the letters, try these techniques:
- Write out the upper- and lower-case letters from memory.
- Picture the upper- and lower-case letters in your head as you write them.
- Write out the upper- and lower-case letters as you say the name of the letter.
- Write out the upper- and lower-case letters as you pronounce the sound the letter makes.
- Reproduce from memory the alphabet chart.
Practice Pronouncing the Words Below. Note that macrons mark the long vowels and short vowels are unmarked.
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To hear the words pronounced, follow the link:
Orthography
In the above in addition to the rough and smooth breathing marks, certain vowels have marks over or in front of them, ᾶ , ῆ , ά , ἄ , ύ , ί , ἕ , ί , Ὅ , ύ . These marks are accents, indicating a special intonation given to the vowel’s pronunciation. In Greek, three accents—acute, grave, or circumflex—mark a raising (acute) or a neutral (grave) or a raising and lowering (circumflex) of pitch. In English, instead of raising or lowering a syllable’s pitch, we place an emphatic stress on one syl lable. Pronounce the word rhetoric and note that the syllable rhe is stressed.
Originally, ancient Greeks wrote using all capital letters, no punctuation, and often no spacing. Eventually as cursive writing became more common, lower-case letters replaced upper-case and accents were added as part of the spelling. Accents and their marks will be explained in Modules 3 , 5 , and 11 . Learning accents will assist you in reading the language out loud, in distinguishing forms that are identical but for accent, and in identifying forms that are difficult to decipher.
More Pronunciation Practice.
|
Greek |
Equivalent |
Derivative |
|
γαῖ ᾰ |
earth |
Gaia |
|
δεινός |
awesome, terrible |
dinosaur |
|
ποιέω |
I make |
onomatopoeia |
|
ναύτης |
sailor |
nautical |
|
γονεύς |
parent |
gonad |
|
ηὗρον |
I found |
eureka! |
|
πλοῦτος |
wealth |
plutocracy |
|
ἄ νθρωπος |
man |
anthropology |
|
βίος |
life |
biology |
|
γλῶττᾰ |
tongue |
polyglot |
|
διδάσκᾰλος |
teacher |
didactic |
|
ἐνθουσιᾰ σμός |
enthusiasm |
enthusiasm |
|
ζῆλος |
zeal |
zeal |
|
ἦθος |
character |
ethos |
|
θεός |
god |
theology |
|
ἱστορίᾱ |
investigation |
history |
|
καρδίᾱ |
heart |
cardiac |
|
λόγος |
word |
logic |
|
μετᾰφορά ( ᾱ ) |
metaphor |
metaphor |
|
ναῦς |
ship |
nautical |
|
ξένος |
foreign |
xenophobia |
|
ὀφθαλμός |
eye |
ophthalmology |
|
πᾰτήρ |
father |
paternity |
|
ῥινόκερος |
nose-horn |
rhinoceros |
|
σοφός |
wise |
philosophy |
|
τύρᾰννο s |
tyrant |
tyrant |
|
ὕβρῐς |
insolence |
hubris |
|
φόβος |
fear |
phobia |
|
χρόνος |
time |
chronology |
|
ψεῦδος |
falsity |
pseudonym |
|
ὥρᾱ |
hour |
hour |
To hear the words pronounced, follow the link:
More Pronunciation Practice . 5
Herodotos of Halikarnessos (Halicarnassus), Ἡρόδοτος ὁ Ἁλικαρνησσέ ος c. 484–425 BCE. Herodotos was an ancient Greek historian who hailed from Halikarnessos, a Greek city founded by the Dorians, ruled by a monarchy, and part of the Persian empire until conquered by Alexander the Great. Credited with inventing the discipline of history, Herodotos wrote in a mixed Ionic dialect. To learn more about this dialect Herodotos, see Appendix XI, Herodotos’ Mixed Dialect.
Module 1 Practice Reading Aloud. Practice reading aloud the beginning of Herodotos’ Histories , paying attention to the sound each syllable makes.
Ἡροδότου Ἁλικαρνησσέος ἱστορίης ἀπόδεξις ἥδε , ὡς μήτε τὰ γεν όμενα ἐξ ἀνθρώπων τῷ χρόνῳ ἐξίτηλα γένηται , μήτε ἔργα μεγάλα τε καὶ θωμαστά , τὰ μὲν Ἕλλησι τὰ δὲ βαρβ άροισι ἀποδεχθέντα , ἀκλεᾶ γένηται , τά τε ἄλλα καὶ δι᾽ ἣν α ἰτίην ἐπολέμησαν ἀλλήλοισι .
Translation
This work of research belongs to Herodotos of Halikarnessos. So that humankind’s achievements do not become forgotten in time and so that the great and wondrous works of barbarians and Greeks do not perish unsung, I have investigated a variety of things, including why they fought one another.
To hear me read, followed by Stefan Hagel’s expert reading with a pitch accent, follow the link below:
1 For detailed information on the invention of the alphabet, see Roger D. Woodard, ‘Phoinikēia Grammata: An Alphabet for the Greek Language’, in A Companion to the Ancient Greek Language, ed. by Egbert J. Bakker (Malden: Blackwell, 2010), pp. 25–46.